I’ve read many analytical articles about Zhao Changpeng, but most of them are too academic. Today, I want to talk about this former crypto billionaire from another angle—from a small-town student in Vancouver to a net worth in the billions, and now the “Crypto Lao Xin.” This story is truly worth looking back on.

Zhao Changpeng’s life path is actually quite typical—immigration, schooling, entrepreneurship, and then a shift. He immigrated to Canada at age 12, went into McGill University and then dropped out, choosing to go “all in” on coding, just like Bill Gates did back then. After that, he moved between Tokyo, Shanghai, and North America, accumulating more than a decade of experience in trading systems. In 2005, he founded a high-frequency trading systems company in Shanghai, but in that era China still didn’t have enough market demand, so it ultimately didn’t really take off.

The real turning point came in 2013. After being introduced to Bitcoin during a poker game, Zhao Changpeng decided to enter the crypto space. In 2014, he joined a major exchange as the head of technology; this experience gave him a deep understanding of the logic behind how exchanges operate. A year later, he left to start his own business. He first worked on SaaS for white-label exchange systems—and this was actually his true starting point for wealth: earning money by providing trading infrastructure, which was much more stable than running an exchange himself.

In 2017, Zhao Changpeng and He Yi officially teamed up to found Binance. At that time, the business of postal card trading platforms had just collapsed, and crypto exchanges were riding a wave of opportunity. They seized it. With offshore mechanisms, a dual-track strategy in both China and the West, and a flexible approach to operations, Binance became the world’s largest exchange in just 165 days. By 2018, Zhao Changpeng’s net worth had already reached the $2 billion range, and by 2021 it surged to $96 billion.

But the story that followed gets more complicated. In 2022, a certain exchange collapsed due to the misappropriation of users’ assets. Although Binance won out in the competition, it was followed by investigations from U.S. regulators. Zhao Changpeng was indicted over allegations related to anti-money laundering, and in the end, in 2023 he stepped down as CEO. He was fined $4.3 billion, and he even briefly went to prison. After being released in September 2024, he announced his return—but by then it was in the roles of investor and advisor.

What’s interesting is that Zhao Changpeng now has 98% of his personal assets tied up in BNB. He says he wants to use crypto to counter the West, while also focusing on investments in education platform Giggle and in fields like biotech and AI. On the surface, it looks quite aggressive, but in reality, it already shows the typical traits of “old money”—he doesn’t use wallets much, he doesn’t really play Meme culture, and his distance from ordinary users has been growing.

In my view, Zhao Changpeng is indeed an accelerator in the crypto industry rather than a creator. He didn’t invent blockchain, but he pushed the exchange infrastructure to its limits, making it easier for ordinary people to enter the crypto market. In a sense, without him there might not be the scale of today’s crypto market. But success also comes with a cost—he gradually became disconnected from the market, turning into a far-off legendary figure.

Can Binance and the BNB ecosystem continue to lead in the new cycle? That depends on whether Zhao Changpeng can find a way back to reconnect with the market. In the world of Web3, old experience can sometimes become a burden—the market’s creativity and the speed of change often go beyond any individual’s expectations.